By Harry Hutchinson, Labour Party Northern Ireland.
The Trade union movement have wasted no time in organising protests and in condemning last week’s Derry car bomb. Under the slogan of ‘No Going Back’ the main civil service union, NIPSA, brought hundreds onto the street to send this clear message to the paramilitaries. The Fermanagh Trade Union Council organised a similar protest. These protests set in place a united organised response from the Trade Unions to such violence.
The car bomb, carried out by the New IRA, shows how fragile the ‘Good Friday’ peace process remains in Northern Ireland. This crude device, made from gas canisters, exploded within minutes of a group of youths walking past. Police had limited time to clear the area.
The New IRA, who have accepted responsibility for the bomb, have over the years been behind the shooting dead of prison officers and targeting police officers. This bomb is seen as a declaration of their intention to escalate violence on the streets in Northern Ireland. Formed in 2012 from an amalgamation of the Real IRA, Republican Action Against Drugs and other dissident republicans, the New IRA has reputedly 40 active members, although some reports claim the organisation are recruiting youth from disadvantaged backgrounds and recruitment could have reached 600.
Saoradh, meaning ‘Liberation’, is the political wing of the New IRA, formed in 2016. Under the slogan of the ‘unfinished revolution’, they openly intend to exploit the uncertainty around Brexit and are hoping for a ‘hard as hell’ border between the North and South of Ireland. Such a hard border would see the return not only of customs officers, but also police check points, particularly patrolled from the Northern Ireland Police, the PSNI.
Northern Ireland has been without a government for the last two years and uncertainty over the its future relationship with the UK, depending on the Brexit ‘backstop’, has brought into question the Good Friday Agreement. This constitutional and political vacuum is being exploited by dissident republicans. There is so far little support for such dissident groups in the Catholic community or for any return to ‘armed struggle’. However, these groups are growing in influence.
It is very encouraging that the trades union movement immediately came out to protest against the car bomb, but their protests must not be left to isolated local trade union organisations and should be taken up and echoed by the leaders of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions and national trade union leaders.
January 30, 2019
